The Joys and Perils of the New Trail Blazers Roster

ThePortland Trail Blazerswill carry a brand new roster and a totally new look into their 2023-24 regular season schedule. Gone are the days when Damian Lillard carried the franchise to respectability with a brilliant halfcourt offense. This year Portland will feature a lot of noise and a bucket full of question marks. What will it look like? That’s the subject of today’s Blazer’s Edge Mailbag.

Dave,

Now that the trades are done tell us how the team is going to change this year. Bonus points if you let us know how we’re going to be better. Any strengths and weaknesses you see right away and how might we address them? We do have the potential to make more trades. Personally I’m excited about running more. You?

James

You’ve already identified the big thrust for the season. It’s the one the Blazers themselves were trumpeting throughout Media Day. It’s also something we mentioned months ago: pushing the attack.

Portland has little experience. Their overall skill level remains to be seen. But they have more athletes per square inch than we’ve seen since the early days of Clyde Drexler and Jerome Kersey. Their first option is going to be the blitz. That’s the second option as well. After that, I guess they bail out to Anfernee Simons or Jerami Grant in the halfcourt until Scoot Henderson gets his NBA footing.

We’ve talked about the pace quickening for years, but in reality the Damian Lillard-CJ McCollum backcourt precluded it from happening. Portland had huge advantages on offense with those two players. Why lose that by pushing a style of offense that, basically, anyone can do? Why tire out your best players running when you can play offensive chess instead with a reasonable expectation of success?

Lillard and McCollum are gone now. In their place are players with no track record. But those players are young, springy, and have athleticism to burn. It’s time to unleash 48 minutes of heck and see what happens.

The chances of an increased pace producing actual wins are small. The rest of the NBA will view this like a big brother watching little bro hit a growth spurt. OK, you’re faster and taller than you used to be. Maybe I can see a day when you’re going to surpass me. But for now, I still know too many tricks. Go ahead and celebrate those two or three times you got past me. The scoreboard is still going to be mine.

The big question will come when the Blazers get stuck in the halfcourt. That’s likely to be a regular occurrence if their defense doesn’t hold up. As the old saw goes, it’s hard to run when you’re taking the ball out of the net.

波特兰有个人得分天赋。他们不have three-point shooting, though. Only three players on the current roster had more than 30 games played last season, more than 3 triples attempted in a game, and better than 37% shooting from the arc. Grant is the incumbent standout at 40.1% shooting on 5.7 threes attempted per game. Simons weighs in at 37.7% on 9.1 attempts. Malcolm Brogdon shot an amazing 44.4% on 4.4 attempts in Boston last season. But nobody else with any reps reaches average shooting, and much of the roster is bad in this category.

It gets worse. Grant and Simons need to be off-ball for most of their three-point attempts, with an asterisk that Simons can usually get free against a single defender. But those two players are also supposed to be at the heart of the halfcourt offense. Moving them off ball also takes away two of Portland’s primary scoring weapons.

Practically speaking, this means that the Henderson/Deandre Ayton pick and roll better get really good, really quickly if Portland wants to generate quality three-point attempts. Even then, the opportunity cost may be high, as the Blazers definitely need Simons and Grant in the primary mix, not just by the sidelines.

This can be sorted out, but it’s going to take time. No matter what Portland does, odds are high that opponents crowd the lane and force the ball to one of the other shooters on a regular basis. If I’m defending the Blazers, I’m keeping four guys near the lane and one on Simons, then seeing what Portland’s going to do. They probably don’t have the marksmanship to spread the floor, which is going to make some of that great individual talent go to waste.

As far as trades to make this better, whose names are central in most Blazers trade rumors at this time? Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons, and Malcolm Brogdon. Literally the three shooters we just named.

Chances are it’s going to take a season, at least, to sort this out. This year, Portland fans are going to have to settle for a fun and energetic roster that’s far different than they’ve seen for the last decade. A balanced roster honed to win big remains a future dream, not a present reality.

Thanks for the question! You can send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll try to answer as many as possible!